


Sailing the Skies Again

by Lkcsi



Series: Radiant Stars [2]
Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Duelling, Friendship, Gen, fluri is just in the background, minor character death - mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 20:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20699735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lkcsi/pseuds/Lkcsi
Summary: Duke used to see the world as beautiful, and Yuri tries to convince him to gaze upon it again.(Originally written for the BottomLowell2k19 event, prompt: friendly competition.)





	Sailing the Skies Again

**Author's Note:**

> hello this fic used to be radically different, and i would have posted this on the actual event week if the file did not end up corrupted halfway through. sad emoji

"Have I ever told you that you picked a really nice place to build your shack on?"

It was true. A sea of grass and shrubs stretched from beneath the gentle slope of the mountain to the great ranges at the horizon. The city of Zaphias stood high by the horizon, and the grand tree of Halure a dot at the distance. Both no longer sported the shining barriers, them having been transformed into spirits many months ago. Lonely trees stood, few and scattered, some of them already felled by the lightning in storms. The woods behind gradually ended by this hill, perfect for isolation for solitude and perfect for openness for the wind that blew through the meadow and through the trees, leaves and grass whistling and rustling as it passed. It rattled the wooden windows of a small, humble stone-and-mortar house, but not enough to tear them out.

Yuri would never admit it, but he loved the feel of wind blowing on his hair and making it fly. Sometimes his fantasy was just to sit photogenically on top of a log with wild flowers growing on the grassy soil beside it and maybe a few mushrooms here and there, and commission an artist to draw him looking candidly at the distance. He took one glance at the man sitting beside him, on the stump of a dead tree, and saw long snow-white hair fluttering gently.

The poor artist would have a difficult time capturing his beauty.

"The storms here are broken by the trees and the mountains."

There was a reply distantly related to the question, and Yuri only shook his head with a smirk. Duke would not be Duke if there wasn't anything odd and vague, perhaps even distant, in the things he says. He faced the west meadows again.

"You never really told me how you'd been able to build this house. Looks old." The house itself was nowhere in shoddy shape at all. Aside from a few marks of age like the moss growing on the lower bricks, rattling hinges, and monster claw marks on the exterior, it still stood steadfast. The claw marks used to worry Yuri the first few times he'd been allowed to visit this little shack, but then he took one look at Duke petting a small mushroomlike monster on the head and immediately understood. Or Dein Nomos did the job. Unlikely, but possible.

Duke wasted no time in answering. "I wasn't alone in building it. By now it would be... I believe twenty years old." 

His scarlet eyes stared so far away in the horizon. Yuri noticed. 

"We built it together before the war, and his daughter helped fix the roof. It used to be a thatch roof. Now, it is far sturdier."

_Elucifur._

"Any leaks?"

Duke hummed in thought. "None at the moment. I would be able to fix it, given the resources."

"You know, if you need any help, give us a call. You shouldn't do it alone."

"Said by a man who had taken careful steps in keeping himself distanced from others."

Yuri raised a brow. That cut _sharp_.

"I've always watched you. Keeping your friends in the dark about your activities. Attempting to go alone, thinking your burden is yours only. You had always believed that you are one of the only humans willing to do things no one else would do."

He grimaced. "Same goes for you."

There was a short pause. "I suppose."

"It's in the past now, isn't it?" He absentmidedly kicked a pebble. "I mean, there's me, I've fixed things with Flynn and I'm now his shadow. Basically I've promised never to leave anyone I care about behind. And then there's you."

"What of me?"

"Aren't you lonely?"

Duke didn't say a word, and fought every strong urge to turn around and leave Yuri alone, like he had always done before.

"My friends taught me that I'm not lonely. They're there for me. I... honestly wouldn't be able to tell Flynn I loved him if they didn't knock some sense into me. We're dating now, too."

He still kept himself silent, his mind wandering back to a past long gone by. 

"Do you ever look out there and think about how beautiful the world is?" Yuri broke the fleeting silence, aware of the other man's discomfort. He thought about the sky as he asked. The skies that would no longer be distorted by the glow of blastia barriers.

Duke thankfully replied, sincerely, softly. "In all my years of life, I have always regarded the earth as breathtakingly beautiful, yet the last time I gazed down at the world was a long time ago, during chaos."

"Right. You flew with him."

"Yes."

"I've got an idea. Why don't you come with us and fly around with Ba'ul? I'm pretty sure he'd be alright with you hitchhiking."

"The Entelexeia must not submit to human will."

"Come on, it's called a request for a reason."

Yuri took some time to think it over, sneaking a glance at Duke. He watched his face, and realized he'd never seen him wear an expression aside from indifference and pain. He began to wonder to himself, what would his friends do, if he'd begun to stray far away from them? He reached his answer pretty quickly, the image of Flynn's enraged expression paired with the glint of his sword and a war cry immediately bringing him to a solution.

Duke watched with some curiosity when Yuri muttered a small 'wait a moment' before dashing into his house and then coming out later carrying Dein Nomos. Before he could ask what he wanted to do with it, Yuri twirled the sword with his right hand with a smirk before handing it to him, handle out. With some hesitation and even more questions he took his sword, and realized what was meant when Yuri unsheathed his own sword from its scabbard.

"There's something Flynn and I like to do when we don't agree on something. Game's called 'beat some sense into the other'. Also called a duel. Everyone else tells me I'm the 'other' part in the name."

Duke stared for a minute before glancing down at his sword. "What are the terms of the duel?"

"First one who falls to the ground loses. At least that's what I'm used to."

"If you win?"

"You'll hitch a ride on Ba'ul."

"Well then. If I win, I do not have to."

"Hmm? No nothing?"

"Would you prefer cutting a tree for firewood for me, then?"

"... it seems easy enough."

"Are you sure you want me to duel you?"

Yuri cocked his head and raised a brow. "Course." He twirled the Second Star with a flick of his wrist, a defiant grin on his face. "I've beaten you before and I can do it again."

"You fail to realize you had not been alone-"

"So come at me!"

Yuri charged forward, sword up, and swung downwards, the blade meeting the other's sword with a loud clang. He attempted another strike, but Duke had already stepped to his left and parried the blade. A little push of the shoulder forced Yuri to stagger backwards, but he still wore a smile despite almost losing.

"Come on. No fun being just on the defense in a duel."

"Hmph."

Yuri began to regret the little taunt when he had to hop backwards to avoid a quick and wide swing. He swore that he saw a small tuft of dark hair, _his dark hair_, falling slowly to the ground, but before he could check his hair and also scold Duke for cutting it a little too close for comfort he had to jump back to avoid the sharp Dein Nomos. Duke did relentless yet precise strokes, and even without magic artes, he was a force to be reckoned with. Yuri had to resort to dashing to a blind area to his opponent's right side, but even getting there was difficult, since whatever he did and whereto he went, Duke was still always facing him.

"You're fast. Damn," Yuri panted out.

"I am not as spry as I used to be." Duke brought down his sword.

_What a boast, damn,_ Yuri thought to himself, almost buckling under the sheer strength of the blow, but he managed to step forward just right, slide his blade, and launch himself to the older man. A grunt came out from his opponent, which brought a little smile on his face. He'd successfully knocked the wind out of him, and so he gave himself brownie points for catching Duke Pantarei of all people off-guard.

Both men staggered, but neither fell.

"Anything more? I'm starting to get bored."

"Have you anything else aside from half-baked taunts?" Duke retorted back, and for a split second Yuri swore he saw the man's lips twitch.

"Well, it does make Flynn tell me exactly what's bothering him. We never really get the right words, so we just duel."

"It appears you two need to learn to talk."

"Same for you."

"I have no need to."

"So let's go," Yuri raised his Second Star up, "and don't hold back!"

Scarlet eyes stared blankly at him before narrowing just ever so slightly. He'd never seen that piercing expression before, and he began feeling his stomach do a double backflip.

"Very well."

And Yuri had one more regret to add to his list of regrets at that moment. He had completely forgotten about one thing. A thing he should have considered while goading Duke to not hold back.

And that thing was Dein Nomos.

Green glyphs appeared on the soil under Duke's feet, the sword glowing brightly.

"H-hey! No magi-"

_"Wind blade!"_

A small, but powerful, gust of wind struck Yuri at the chest, sending him tumbling back and downward. The next thing he knew, he was staring up at the blue sky. His back had hit the ground. 

Duke walked over to him and pointed the tip of his blade at Yuri's throat, although without any malice. It just hung there. Defeat. So ends their tragically short duel. Fighting Flynn always resulted in long matches that felt like hours and yet actually lasting half an hour, but this duel was ridiculously short, being only around five minutes at best.

Yuri groaned. He'd have to cut a tree later.

"Cheater," Yuri mumbled before glancing back at the older man, and immediately his eyes widened.

His mouth was curved up into a ghost of a smile, and there was a glimmer in his eyes that he never saw him have at all. He looked stunning. Dumbfounded, Yuri pointed at it.

"You're smiling."

And suddenly Duke turned his back on Yuri, his steps away being a little more hurried than usual. When Yuri pushed himself back on his feet again, his friend was already seated on a tree stump, looking up at the clouds. He approached slowly, and suddenly the other man's hand shot up, pointing at a feathery white wisp on the sky.

"A tassel."

"What do you mean?" Yuri squinted his eyes to look up at the cirrus cloud floating so far away.

"He used to point at a cloud and tell me its shape. Sometimes it would be a mushroom. Others, a wolf. Too many times, he would say 'a cloud'... I wonder..." Duke cocked his head and turned around to meet Yuri's gaze. "I would like to sail the skies again with your friend."

Another surprised feeling took over Yuri, so much that the only thing he could utter out was an undignified, "Eh?"

"I have decided. Even though you lost our duel... I would like to see it once more."

/**/

Ba'ul's warbles sounded through the air as he and the Fiertia sailed through the skies. The ship the whalelike Entelexeia carried had one extra passenger, one that almost achieved mythical status if only he never existed.

Brave Vesperia sometimes allowed people to ride in the skies for a hefty fee. Nobles and high-ranking guild members still had their separate quarters, but all of them huddled together to speak about the mysterious white-haired man that had boarded with them near Zaphias.

Duke looked down to the vast water below and the jagged landscape. He held his breath and observed the beauty of Terca Lumireis, memories flooding back in his mind. When his hands held the wooden railings, he tried to imagine feathers. Feathers he used to accidentally pluck off in fear while flying when he was still fifteen, feathers he would never be able to touch again.


End file.
